This first discovery of a comet by a woman brought Caroline to the attention of the world. In 1787 King George III gave Caroline a £50 per year salary to continue as William's assistant. With this step, she became the first woman officially recognized for a scientific position.
In 1788, William married Mary Pitt, daughter of a wealthy merchant and a widow, whose first child has also died.
Although Caroline continued to work as his assistant, she also began to do more independent work. By 1797 she had discovered seven more comets. Her second comet is now known as periodic comet Herschel-Rigollet and returns every 155 years. Besides her comet hunting, Caroline also began re-cataloging Flamsteed's star catalog and submitted it to the Royal Society in 1798, along with another 560 stars which Flamsteed had omitted. After William died in 1822, Caroline returned to Hannover and completed William's catalogue of 2500 nebulae.
Shortly thereafter, she received the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society on February 8, 1828. She went on to receive other honors including becoming the first woman to receive honorary membership into Britain's Royal Society in 1835, election into the Royal Irish Academy in 1838, and awarded the Gold Medal for Science by the King of Prussia in 1846 on her 96th birthday.
Caroline wrote her own epitaph, which was engraved on her tombstone upon her death on January 9, 1848. It reads, "The eyes of her who is glorified here below turned to the starry heavens." In 1889, Caroline received a final honor for her achievements when a minor planet was named "Lucretia," her middle name.
